trancekr in the wonderland

http://www.thebitbag.com/2008/02/21/microsoft-blogger-breakfast-bullets/

XNA Community Program

* Games get put in escrow before they are available on XBLA
* Games will be reviewed by peers in the Community Program
* Games are all unrated. No ESRB intervention
* There may be a possible file size increase in the future to accommodate game developers.
* No word or news on possible money making opportunities for community developers
* Games probably won’t be restricted by region. In other words, you’ll probably be able to play games from Japan and Europe. MS is still looking into this.
* Game creators will retain all rights to their games.
* There will be no certification for XNA community developed games.
* Stats for XNA downloads may be implemented in the future
* No achievements for XNA community games
* Friends lists probably won’t work on XNA community games. They are still working on it.
* Dream, Build, Play will continue
* Microsoft believes it is VERY important to promote independent content
* Microsoft believes that the XNA Community program is a great way to farm content

360 Shortage

* Microsoft said holiday sales were better than expected
* More systems available in March

Xbox Live Downtime Over The Holidays

* Xbox Live outage due to overwhelming holiday response
* 1,000,000 concurrent users on before Super Bowl playing Madden
* 4,000,000 new Live Gold subscribers in 6 months

Xbox 360 Blu-Ray Player Possibilities

* Microsoft doesn’t care about Blu-Ray at this time
* Xbox 360 is a game machine not a movie player
* If you must watch movies on it, there’s Video Marketplace
* 3% attach rate for HD-DVD add-on

Red Ring Of Death Still An Issue?

* Failure rate has officially dropped
* Microsoft is working on the DRM issue with downloaded content
* DRM issue only affects those who don’t have access to Live
* In the interim, Microsoft will refund ALL your MS Points to re-download your content

UT3 Mods And DIY Hard Drive Upgrades(Sony allows this why not MS)

* Microsoft believes in a safe and secure environment and it’s why they have so much on lock down.
* UT3 issue is still being worked on
* Microsoft cares more about security than their competitors and for good reason

GTAIV DLC

* When MS says exclusive, they mean that no other system can have DLC content for GTAIV

* It will be bigger than a lot of people think. GTA3 Vice City and San Andreas were basically expansions of GTA3. Think of the DLC that way. We are talking major expansion for GTAIV
* No price has been discussed yet. It’s up to Rockstar on whether or not they will charge for it
* If successful, DLC may be the new way to deliver GTA expansions

Mass Effect Sex Scandal

* Microsoft called it, “Irresponsible journalism”
* Said that someone was probably trying to make a name for themself by bashing a video game

Spring Dashboard Update

* Don’t hold your breath. No announcement yet